


Fool's Gold

by hyenalab



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, F/F, I have a lot of feelngs about Pearl, Light Angst, Other, Unreliable Narrator, Unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6302671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyenalab/pseuds/hyenalab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She promises Pearl she’s different, that she’s special, that she doesn’t think of her like that. Sometimes Pearl even believes it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fool's Gold

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings about Pearl. Come cry with me.

**Fool’s Gold**

 

Pearl wonders if it was her fault. If she hadn’t mentioned fusion to Greg, would he and Rose have tried?

Without the understanding that resulted from that encounter, would they have become… intimate?

Could she have prevented what was to come?

***

Rose Quartz, magnificent as she is, is very like a child sometimes. She’s always following the humans around, talking about some new thing they’re doing, studying them. Learning about them.

And then, later, she starts to… _fraternize_ with them. Different ones, all humans are different- tall, short, long haired, hetero-chromatic eyes. Especially if they have unusual traits- physical or mental. One of her favorites is a _philosopher_ , of all things.

It’s not the humans she loves, not really. Oh, she _loves_ humans, and she loves what they create and what they do and how they behave and every new thing they learn. But she doesn’t love them as individuals. She loves them as samples, as shiny things, as novelties.

She’s drawn to them like she was drawn to Pearl. For all that she’s a warrior caste gem, Rose has a need to examine, like a specimen, the differences and the effects of an outlier’s existence in a way that has very little to do with strategy.

She promises Pearl she’s different, that she’s special, that she doesn’t think of her like that. Sometimes Pearl even believes it.

She tells her humans the same thing.

***

She hears Rose say “I love you,” after Greg has left. She’s not sure who she means. She’s not sure Rose is sure, either.

She pretends not to hear.

***

She was so sure he was like the others. Until he wasn’t.

After Rose is gone, she projects her image on the ceiling of her room.

_I love you. I love you. I love you._

“I love you too.”

It’s the first time Pearl has cried saline tears. It’s not the last. 


End file.
